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World War I As a Vehicle for Transformation in Canadian Governance and Military Capability

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World War I As a Vehicle for Transformation in Canadian Governance and Military Capability “A CONTINUATION OF POLICY BY OTHER MEANS:” WORLD WAR I AS A VEHICLE FOR TRANSFORMATION IN CANADIAN GOVERNANCE AND MILITARY CAPABILITY A Monograph by MAJOR Barbara J. Honig Canadian Army School of Advanced Military Studies United States Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas AY 2014-001 MONOGRAPH APPROVAL Name of Candidate: MAJ Barbara J. Honig Monograph Title: “A Continuation of Policy by Other Means:” World War I as a Vehicle for Transformation in Canadian Governance and Military Capability Approved by: __________________________________, Monograph Director Ricardo A. Herrera, Ph.D. __________________________________, Seminar Leader Geoffrey C. de Tingo, COL, LG ___________________________________, Director, School of Advanced Military Studies Henry A. Arnold III, COL, IN Accepted this 22nd day of May 2014 by: ___________________________________, Director, Graduate Degree Programs Robert F. Baumann, Ph.D. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student author, and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other government agency. ABSTRACT “A CONTINUATION OF POLICY BY OTHER MEANS:” WORLD WAR I AS A VEHICLE FOR TRANSFORMATION IN CANADIAN GOVERNANCE AND MILITARY CAPABILITY, by MAJOR Barbara J. Honig, Canadian Army, 45 pages. Canada’s participation in World War I enabled transformation of the nation from a satellite state into an independent nation and ally. It also saw the transformation of the largely amateur and inexperienced Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) into one of the most effective fighting formations in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Seen through the lens of operational art, these transformations are the result of arrangements of actions, linked in purpose, to achieve strategic objectives. The first of the strategic objectives was Canadian autonomy from Britain. The actions along the line of effort to achieve independence include the military and governance efforts to support the war, an information campaign to build a sense of nationalism, and Canadianization of the CEF (essentially establishing a de facto national army). The second strategic objective was the creation of an effective fighting force within the CEF. The actions along this line of effort were based upon transformation of the organizational culture of the Canadian Corps: the development of a command philosophy that engendered professionalism and pragmatism, and the value placed upon learning and innovation. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................................. ii TABLES ......................................................................................................................................... iii INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1 National Level Transformation ................................................................................................... 5 The CEF at the Beginning of World War I ................................................................................. 8 CANADIANIZATION OF THE 1ST CANADIAN CORPS .......................................................... 13 National Army – Keeping the Canadian Corps Together ......................................................... 14 Building Capacity in the Canadian Corps ................................................................................. 16 The Overseas Ministry .............................................................................................................. 21 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ................................................................................................. 24 Professionalization of Leadership ............................................................................................. 25 Learning and Innovation ........................................................................................................... 29 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 42 APPENDIX 1 – KEY PERSONNEL ............................................................................................. 46 APPENDIX 2 – TIMELINE .......................................................................................................... 48 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................... 50 i ACRONYMS AAR After Action Review BEF British Expeditionary Force CBSO Counter-Battery Staff Officer CEF Canadian Expeditionary Force CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff C-in-C Commander in Chief CWRO Canadian War Records Office GOC General Officer Commanding IMB Imperial Munitions Board IWC Imperial War Cabinet IWO Imperial War Office NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization OJT On-the-job Training OPCOM Operational Command OPCON Operational Control PM Prime Minister PPCLI Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry SORA Staff Officer Royal Artillery TACON Tactical Control TEWT Tactical Exercise without Troops TTP Tactics, Techniques, Procedures UK United Kingdom U.S. United States ii TABLES Table 1. Machine gun densities in 1918 ......................................................................................... 40 iii INTRODUCTION Canada was a young nation in 1914. The British North America Act, forming the Dominion of Canada as a nation independent from Great Britain, but without the constitutional authority to make its own foreign policy, had passed less than half a century earlier, in 1867.1 Provinces and territories had been formed and added to the confederation as recently as 1905.2 Despite their independence, the Dominion of Canada remained closely bound to Great Britain. Eighty-nine percent of Canada’s 7.2 million people in 1911 had been born in Canada, Britain, or a British colony – this census statistic is telling in that it does not even differentiate between Canadian-born and British-born, despite the 50-year interval since the British North America Act had established Canada’s independence regarding internal government.3 Politically, “Canada’s time as part of the British Empire inclined it to see strategic problems not in Canadian terms, but imperial and global terms.”4 As Canadian Prime Minister (PM) Sir Wilfred Laurier stated in 1910 “when Britain is at war, Canada is at war… there is no distinction.”5 Thus, when Britain’s ultimatum to Germany expired on midnight 4 August 1914 and committed Britain to war, it also automatically committed Canada to war. In fact, “Prime Minister Robert Borden learned that 1Library and Archives Canada, “Towards Confederation,” Library and Archives Canada, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/023001-2700-e.html (accessed 6 November 2013); G. W. L. Nicholson, Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919 (Ottawa, Canada: Roger Duhamel, F.R.S.C., 1964), 5. 2Library and Archives Canada, “Towards Confederation: Provinces and Territories,” Library and Archives Canada, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/023001-3000-e.html (accessed 6 November 2013). 3Statistics Canada, “Canada Year Book 1914,” Statistics Canada, http://www66.statcan.gc.ca/eng/acyb_c1914-eng.aspx?opt=%2feng%2f1914%2f191400190000_ Statistical +Summary+of+the+Progress+of+Canada.pdf (accessed 6 November 2013). 4Michael S. Neiberg, “A Middle Power on the World Stage: Canadian Grand Strategy in the Twentieth Century,” Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 14, no. 2 (2012): 6-7. 5Desmond Morton, A Military History of Canada (Edmonton, Canada: Hurtig Publishers, 1990), 130. 1 Canada was at war the same way millions of his countrymen did: he read about it in his morning newspaper.”6 Germany is more than 5000 km from Canada’s easternmost provinces: a distance impossible to cross with aircraft in 1914, and a lengthy sea journey through the stormy North Atlantic Ocean. Thus, it seems difficult to imagine that Germany posed an existential threat to Canada. However, the Canada of 1914 had decision-making authority for domestic affairs but not for foreign policy – an arrangement that made Canada more of a semi-autonomous province of Britain rather than an independent nation. As well, Canada was heavily dependent upon Britain for trade and naval defence at the time. During World War I, Canada maintained a home guard of 16,000 personnel, with an additional 50, 000 Canadian Expeditionary Force personnel in the country for training, awaiting deployment, or other miscellaneous duties.7 This miniscule force, even supplemented with whatever portions of the civilian population that could mobilize in the event of an invasion, would be unable to defend the nation against a German invasion subsequent to the fall of Britain and loss of British naval supremacy. This force would be similarly unable to defend Canada against aggression from its southern neighbor should the U.S. decide that the loss of British protection made Canada a reasonable target for invasion. Canada considered U.S. invasion a significant threat in the early 20th Century due to the vulnerability of Canada’s sparsely populated land mass and the U.S.’s previous aggression.8 Additionally, in the early years of the Great War the U.S. had not declared its intent to support the Allies, making it an unknown quantity and potentially
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